Sondeckis was born in
Šiauliai in 1928. He graduated from the
Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre (Vilnius Conservatory) as a violinist with
Alexander Livontas in 1952 and studied conducting with
Igor Markevitch. Sondeckis was a member of the Department of String Instruments at the Lithuanian SSR State Conservatoire. Sondeckis began conducting in 1955 and started at the Student Orchestra of the
National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art. He became a teacher at the Lithuanian Academy in 1959 and became a professor there in 1976. and it gave its first performance on 30 April 1960. He served as its artistic director and principal conductor until 2004. Sondeckis led the
St. Petersburg State Hermitage Orchestra of St. Petersburg (Camerata) from 1989 and from 2005, he has led the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted orchestras in many countries and was an honorary member of the
Lithuanian Musicians' Union. He is one of the most decorated figures in contemporary classical music in Lithuania, including
People's Artist of the USSR (1980), a Laureate of the
USSR State Prize (1987) and winner of the
Lithuanian National Prize (1999). He has served as a jury member of major international competitions, including Mozart in Salzburg, Tchaikovsky in Moscow and the Toscanini Competitions in Parma. He was also a member of the
Herbert von Karajan Foundation in Berlin. In 2010, Šiauliai Conservatory was renamed after Saulius Sondeckis as Šiauliai Saulius Sondeckis Conservatory. Later it was known as Šiauliai Saulius Sondeckis School of Arts (since 2011) and
Šiauliai Saulius Sondeckis Gymnasium of Arts (since 2013). He died on 3 February 2016 in
Vilnius,
Lithuania. ==References==